Cardinal Pell announces winner of $100,000 adult stem cell research grant

By Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney

18/12/2007

Cardinal George Pell today announced that the Archdiocese of Sydney’s $100,000 grant to support adult stem cell research has been won by an Adelaide-based research team, led by Associate Professor Stan Gronthos (Mesenchymal Stem Cell Group, Bone and Cancer Laboratories, Hanson Institute), and Dr Simon Koblar (Schools of Medicine and Molecular Biomedical Science, Australian Research Council Centre for the Molecular Genetics of Development at the University of Adelaide).

Their success in winning the grant will enable Associate Professor Gronthos and Dr Koblar to investigate the capacity of stem cells derived from human dental pulp tissue to differentiate into neuronal cells, and hence whether they have the potential to be used in treating people who have suffered strokes.

Both researchers praised the contribution of their co-supervised PhD student, Dr. Agnieszka Arthur, who was instrumental in advancing these studies. Dr. Arthur is also a co-investigator on the grant and is currently undertaking her postdoctoral training at the Hanson Institute.

Cardinal Pell applauded the work being done by Associate Professor Gronthos and Dr Koblar and other researchers in Australia on therapeutic applications for adult stem cells.

“The project of Associate Professor Gronthos and Dr Koblar brings new ideas and new thinking to adult stem cell research, and to the search for new treatments for people who have had a stroke”, Cardinal Pell said.

“Their research will initiate and foster a new collaboration between researchers in this area, and I am particularly pleased that the grant from the Archdiocese of Sydney will make a significant contribution to ensuring that their research project goes ahead.

“This is exactly the sort of ethical, innovative and life-enhancing research that the grant was established to promote, and I am delighted that Associate Professor Gronthos and Dr Koblar will join the other distinguished winners of our previous grants in furthering this work.”

Ten highly competitive applications from stem cell researchers across Australia were received for this year’s grant. The applications were considered by an independent selection panel, which sought referees’ reports from one of two referees nominated by the applicant and a referee chosen by the selection panel.

The selection panel, comprising Dr Peter McCullagh, a medical researcher (retired) who is the member with expertise in research ethics on the NHMRC’s Licensing Committee, Professor Colin Thomson, Professorial Fellow in the Faculty of Law at the University of Wollongong and Chair of the Australian Health Ethics Committee and Dr Bernadette Tobin, Director of the Plunkett Centre for Ethics at St Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney, unanimously recommended the project of Associate Professor Gronthos and Dr Koblar for the grant.

Dr Tobin, the Chair of the selection panel, said that while all ten projects submitted for this year’s grant met the selection criteria and reflected very high standards of scientific excellence, Associate Professor Gronthos and Dr Koblar’s project stood out for a number of reasons.

“We were advised that these researchers are punching above their weight”, Dr Tobin said.

“One of the referees judged that Associate Professor Gronthos and Dr Koblar’s innovative research would be highly likely to produce important new knowledge. And with new knowledge comes the hope of new treatments and therapies.

“In addition to this, Associate Professor Gronthos and Dr Koblar lead an established research team with a very good publication record in the area of adult stem cell research”.

The Archdiocese of Sydney’s grant has now funded three different kinds of research into the therapeutic potential of adult stem cells.

In 2003 it was awarded to Professor Alan Mackay-Sim of Griffith University for a project which was designed to see whether adult stem cells derived from the nose had therapeutic potential in the treatment of Parkinson’s disease. Professor Mackay-Sim was subsequently appointed Director of the National Adult Stem Cell Research Centre at Griffith University.

In 2005 it was awarded to Dr Pritinder Kaur of the Peter MacCallum Cancer Institute for a project which was designed to investigate the therapeutic potential of adult stem cells derived from the skin in regenerating human skin after catastrophic burns.

The grant is also becoming increasingly competitive amongst leading stem cell researchers in Australia, with 4 applicants in 2003, 8 in 2005 and 10 in 2007.

Further Enquiries:

For Cardinal Pell: please contact Jim Hanna: 0414 828.629
For Associate Professor Stan Gronthos: 08 8222 3460
For Dr Simon Koblar: 08 8222 6125 / 08 8222 6740